The young mother who gave birth to conjoined twins in Vancouver on Wednesday said that it doesn't matter whether they can be separated, as long as they remain healthy.

"It's going to take quite a while to find out whether they can separate them or if they can be separated," 21-year-old Felicia Simms said in an exclusive interview on Friday with CTV News.

"It doesn't matter to me whether they can be separated or not."

Doctors had been concerned ever since they learned that the twins were joined at the head, but their mom maintained all along that her girls would beat the odds. They relaxed on Thursday after the twins survived their first 24 hours.

Those first hours are critical for the survival of conjoined twins. Conjoined births are rare, occurring only once for every 2.5 million births. Forty-five per cent of conjoined twins die before birth and the majority of those who survive birth die soon after.

Simms said that she hadn't worried, despite the potential for complications for both her and her babies during the high-risk caesarean birth.

"I knew from the beginning that they would be fine," she said. "I guess (it was) a mother's intuition."

When she heard their strong cries when they were first pulled from her womb, any final doubts disappeared.

"They were pretty loud," Simms said. "They had lungs!"

The neonatal team spent about 15 minutes cleaning Tatiana and Krista and checking their vital signs before Simms got to see them.

Then "they wheeled them over and showed them to me and I got to touch them and say hi," she said. "It was awesome. It was a relief, knowing that they were actually breathing on their own and doing everything we hoped they should be doing."

The twins weighed about 6.5 pounds each, more than double the 2.5 pounds to three pounds doctors were hoping for.

"I calmed completely down after that," Simms said.

Her other two children have yet to meet their new sisters. But four-year-old Rosa, the oldest, has been watching them on television.

"From what I hear ... she was hugging the TV and kissing them," said Simms.

Simms has been busy bonding with her newborns since their birth.

Hospital staff has colour-coded the identical twins with stickers -- Tatiana in pink and Krista in green.

But Simms doesn't need the colours to recognize which daughter is which.

"Tatiana's face is chubbier than Krista's," she said. "Krista's face is a little thinner, so I can tell them apart that way. And (Krista) is a little bit quieter than (Tatiana)."

Like every mom, Simms has dreams for her children. She recognizes the future is uncertain.

But for now, "I'm just taking it one day at a time," she said. "I have no idea how it's going to end up."

That makes every moment with them precious, she said.

For the last two days, because she was recovering from the caesarean section and was in a wheel chair, Simms had to content herself with touching her babies' heads and holding their hands.

"I'd talk to them and let them know I'm there," she said.

But on Friday, she was finally able to do the one thing she's longed to do since their birth: hold them.

Simms says when she looks at her daughters she doesn't see the physical differences that may strike most people.

"I see two adorable little girls," she said. "They're not any different to me."

With a report from CTV's Michele Brunoro in Vancouver